“Friday, I think,” it was pretty hard for any one to keep track of the days of the week out there in the forest.
“Friday, then tell them to be ready for the recount Monday.”
“Not before Monday?” Scott objected with disappointment.
“No, they will have to have that long to get their bands back to the chute and I advise you to check your estimates pretty carefully before you order them back. They will raise some row if you make a mistake. Heth can help you with it.”
“I have not seen Heth since I started for that fire day before yesterday,” Scott was glad of a chance to report this for he felt that he was getting very little assistance out of Heth and he wanted Dawson to know it.
“Must have gone to town with the checkings,” was the unsatisfactory reply.
“Well, I guess I can handle this alone,” Scott said, “I am mad enough to do almost anything.”
“Go to it then, but be careful not to get yourself into a hole.”
It was the most satisfactory conference that Scott had ever had with the ranger and he began to think that Baxter’s estimate of him might be right after all. He was going to have the satisfaction of ordering those herders back to the chute and he was not sure that he would have let Heth help him if he had been there. He hurried out to saddle Jed and get started on such pleasant duty. Jed seemed quite as anxious to be off as his master. He came up to the gate at Scott’s whistle and they were soon skimming away over the old ridge trail on their joyful errand.
Scott rode straight to the place where he had seen the nearest band the day before. They were nowhere to be seen even when he climbed onto a knoll which gave him a quite extensive view. He was not an expert on sheep, but he had heard from the herders themselves the day before that the sheep had been on very slim rations in the lowlands before they came onto the forest and were now so eager for the fresh spring grass that they were hard to move. There was plenty of grass here and he could not think why they had been moved, or where they could have gone.